Asian, European stocks boosted by breakthrough Korea summit

The summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's Moon Jae-in is the first in a decade

Asian and European stock markets advanced Friday with global investor sentiment boosted by a historic meeting of the leaders of North and South Korea.

However Wall Street treaded water as data showed that US economic growth slowed at the beginning of the year, although the annualized rate of 2.3 percent growth rate was better than many economists had feared. Earnings were mixed, with Amazon surging on better-than-expected earnings but ExxonMobil tumbling on disappointing earnings.

"The historic meeting of the leaders of North and South Korea has given a boost to the geopolitical mood -- which was been tepid recently."

In Asia, Seoul's Kospi shares index was among the best performers and the won strengthened as the leaders of North and South Korea held talks.

Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in have agreed to pursue a permanent peace and the complete denuclearization of the divided peninsula, as they embraced after a historic summit laden with symbolism.

It was the highest-level encounter yet in a whirlwind of nuclear diplomacy, and intended to pave the way for a much-anticipated encounter between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

But Kim did not mention denuclearization and analysts warned that while the summit was a good first step, similar promises had been made before and much remained to be done to resolve the issue of the North's atomic arsenal.

"The positive atmosphere of the summit will lead to a period of relative calm on and around the Korean Peninsula in the short-term, which will be positive for South Korea equities and the won," said a note from Eurasia Group that said the odds of complete denuclearization remained "poor."

"Nothing agreed to today locks North Korea into anything," the note said. "Nothing we have seen thus far leads us to believe that Kim Jong-un’s calculations on the necessity of a credible nuclear capability to deter threats of his regime being attacked or overthrown have changed."